PAC Resources

Program Advisory Committee (PAC)

PAC 16 Call for Proposals

April 26, 1999

Dear Jefferson Lab User,

During the week of July 12-16, the Jefferson Laboratory Program Advisory
Committee (PAC16) will consider new proposals, updates, and
letters-of-intent. PAC16 will also review the schedule for experiments in
the three Halls. The JLab Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) will make
comments on the technical viability of the proposals and provide these
comments to the spokespersons and the PAC prior to the meeting. As
always, proposals will be judged on the quality of the physics, technical
feasibility, and the ability of the group to carry out the proposed
measurements.

The backlog of approved experiments at Jefferson Lab is large - between
six and seven years for our present schedule with our present overall
operating efficiency (~50%). To keep the backlog in equilibrium, the PAC
will receive guidance for Halls A and B that no more than an equilibrium
level of beam time be recommended for approval (three months of running
per hall or 1-1/2 months of 100% efficient operation). This guidance will
not be so rigid as to preclude PAC consideration and recommendation of
important new experiments and/or programs that cannot be accommodated
within the nominal beam time limits, but any such exceptions will have to
present a compelling scientific case. In the case of Hall C, the jeopardy
process has begun so the rules outlined in the section below will be
followed.

We continue to work hard to improve the accelerator and hall operating
availabilities in order to provide more useful beam time each year. This
is one of the primary focuses of both the Accelerator Operations group and the Hall groups. We have
requested incremental funding from DOE in support of this effort, and we
have also asked DOE for further additional funding so that we can deliver
more physics each year. Discussions on these issues are ongoing.

Jeopardy

The laboratory has a three-year Jeopardy Rule that will provide a second
mechanism for keeping the backlog roughly constant. Jeopardy begins three
years after a hall has begun taking data or three years after the
proposal was approved, whichever is later. PAC15 reviewed the first set
of the Hall C experiments (a total of six) that fell under the Jeopardy
Rule. No experiments are in the jeopardy category for PAC16, but a number
of Hall C experiments will be in this category for PAC17. The
spokespersons of these experiments will be notified directly prior to
this PAC. The jeopardy process will begin with the summer 2000 PAC
(PAC18) in Hall A and with the winter 2000 PAC (PAC19) in Hall B.

The Jeopardy policy is intended to ensure that the ratings of all
approved experiments continue to accurately reflect their scientific
priority. It recognizes the fact that the scientific world doesn't stand
still: theoretical developments and experiments elsewhere can affect the
scientific interest in experiments here, and therefore their priority. It
reinforces our goal of always identifying and running the best possible
science program. Jeopardy also provides a fair and equitable mechanism to
reduce the backlog of approved experiments to about three years, as
recommended by the Users Group Board of Directors, the PAC, and the
laboratory's Science and Technology Review Committee as optimum. To this
end, PAC16 will be asked to limit the total beam time it awards in Hall C
(for both new and jeopardy proposals) to an amount that reduces the Hall
C backlog by roughly one-third of its current excess above the target
value of three years. A similar approach will be taken in Halls A and B
as they enter jeopardy.

All PACs will consider both new proposals and resubmitted "jeopardy"
proposals on an equal footing. This will clearly have the effect of
"raising the bar" for experiment approval.

GUIDELINES FOR NEW PROPOSALS, UPDATES, AND LETTERS-OF-INTENT

New Proposals

New proposals requiring beam energies up to 6 GeV will be reviewed by PAC16.

Experiments with Similar Physics Goals

On your proposal cover sheet indicate any existing approved,
conditionally approved, or deferred experiments that have physics goals
similar to those in your proposal. In the text of your proposal, compare
and contrast your proposal with respect to these proposals and
experiments already considered or under consideration by previous PACs.
Note that both one-page summaries and the full text for most proposals is
available on-line at http://www.jlab.org/exp_prog/experiments/.
You may also contact User Liaison (see below) for copies of proposals.

The spokespersons for the experiments and proposals you have listed on
your proposal cover sheet will receive copies of your proposal prior to
the PAC meeting. They will be allowed to submit written comments that
will then be passed on to the PAC with a copy provided to you. If you
fail to identify a previously approved proposal with similar physics
goals, the spokesperson for the previously approved proposal may request
that final approval of your proposal be contingent on review by a
subsequent PAC of the issues they want raised. If laboratory management
agrees that the request has merit, the final approval of your proposal
will be deferred until the following PAC has reviewed the situation.

The beam time request should be provided in some detail. Do not request
any contingency time as the scheduling process includes this time. The
beam requirements and time request should include all of the time for the
following activities:

If your collaboration has an approved experiment, a conditionally
approved experiment, or a deferred proposal and you would like to modify
the physics goals, significantly change your running conditions, receive
reconsideration of your scientific rating, or achieve full approval for a
conditionally approved or deferred experiment, please submit an update.

Note: The PAC may or may not choose to hear an oral presentation for
updates depending on the scope of the proposed changes.

Deferred Experiments

Deferred experiments must be updated within one year or they will be
removed from future consideration.

Rejected Proposals

A proposal based on a previously rejected proposal is considered a 'new'
proposal. Further, this 'new' proposal must include substantive changes
that fully address the issues raised by the PAC that rejected it for it
to be considered by the new PAC.

Letters-of-Intent

Letters-of-intent may be submitted to solicit the evaluation by the PAC
of a new line of research before investing the large effort required to
prepare a full proposal. In general, the letters-of-intent will involve
either a major new experimental apparatus or extension of present beam
properties.

Letters-of-intent will be made public after receiving PAC appraisal in
the same manner as full proposals. This means that the research program
contained in them would enter the public domain; therefore, the
letters-of-intent mechanism cannot be viewed as a means of "staking out
territory." Rather, it provides experimenters with feedback at an early
stage on the PAC's views on the scientific and technical merit of an idea
that the experimenters intend to develop into a full proposal.

Due Date: New Proposals, Updates, and Letters-of-Intent

Proposals, Updates, and Letters-of-Intent are due to User Liaison by
close of business Tuesday, June 8, 1999.

All submissions can be mailed or submitted electronically. (Electronic
Submissions are preferred. This will enable User Liaison to easily post
the information to the web.) Faxes will not be accepted. If you would
like to experiment with submitting your proposal electronically in either
HTML, PDF or postscript format, please contact User Liaison by May 28,
1999. We will test our ability to locally acquire and print a draft of
your proposal. If successful, you may submit your proposal electronically
by 3:00 p.m. on the due date stated above.

All proposals and updates to be considered by PAC16 must also include a
completed:

Amount of raw data expected (total, and per year for long duration
experiments)

Compute power (in SPECint95 hours) required for reconstruction and
analysis

Compute power (in SPECint95 hours) required for simulations

Amount of on-line disk storage

Amount of data to be imported from and exported to outside
institutions; what will be the expected mechanism (e.g. network transfer if so what is the
expected bandwidth?, DLT copies, etc.)

Indicate any other special requirements (for example, special
configuration of data acquisition systems) that may require resources
and/or coordination with the Computer Center.
If possible, please indicate what fraction of these resources will be
provided by collaborating institutions and how much is expected to be
provided by Jefferson Lab.

Procedures for Experiments

Procedures for experiments are provided at http://www.jlab.org/user_resources/PFX/.
The procedures include the submission and re-submission of proposals, the
PAC's scientific ratings and recommendations of Approval, Conditional
Approval, Deferral or Rejection, the Directors award of beam-time, the
experiment preparation and scheduling processes, the associated
Environment, Health and Safety reviews, the running of the experiments,
the allocation of computational resources, and the publication of results
including presentations at conferences.

Reference Material Hard Copies

If you would like any of the materials on the Web sent to you, please
contact User Liaison via phone (757-269-7586), fax (757-269-7003) or
e-mail (users@jlab.org).